Apologies
by WanderingStarmaster
Summary: Reeve comes to see Elmyra with news, the kind that haunts every mother's worst nightmares; how will Elmyra handle it?


Hello all. Been a while since I've been on the scene and recently felt the urge to start writing things again. This is something short and simple to kind of get myself back into the swing of it.

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The room was gripped with a tense silence. Reeve watched the brown-haired woman staring into her now empty mug, one of the few comforts he'd managed to bring from her home while keeping her and the girl in this safe house. Eventually Elmyra let out a breath and spoke, not looking at him. "Was it quick?"

Reeve glanced up at her, but she still did not look up. "Did she feel any pain?"

Reeve paused before replying. "She…barely made a sound." Elmyra nodded silently, wiping at her eyes.

"What exactly was she trying to do?" she asked.

Reeve let out a sigh, giving a small shrug. "We're not entirely sure. She didn't give us much to go on, all we know is that she was convinced it was important and that she was the only one that could do it."

Elmyra let out a choked laugh. "That sounds like her. Once she got something in her head nothing could ever change her mind." She wiped her eyes again, let out another small sigh. "Did it work?"

Reeve hesitated. She'd been killed seemingly in the middle of something, so his initial impression was that she'd failed. But then, she'd been there for some time. Had she actually accomplished what she set out to do prior to her death? "I don't know. Again, we're not sure what she was trying to do, so we have no idea if she succeeded."

Elmyra didn't say anything, and Reeve considered what he should do next. Should he just go and leave her to grieve or try to offer comfort? Looking at her, he felt he ought to at least make the effort. "Mrs. Gainsborough, for what it's worth, I truly am sorry." He had hoped she might accept it out of hand, but the way she reacted wasn't entirely unexpected either.

The sounds of weeping suddenly stopped, and she finally looked up at him, a hard edge in her eyes. "Sorry? You're sorry?" she asked. "After everything Shinra has done, you're sorry?" Reeve said nothing, he just averted his eyes, ready to take the beratement. "You people hounded and harassed her _literally _her entire life, and you're sorry?"

A sharp sob escaped her. "Shinra is the reason she lost her parents in the first place. Shinra is the reason she was locked up in a lab like a rat for _seven years_! Shinra is the reason she was never able to completely relax, why she was always looking over her shoulder, wondering when they would come and drag her back. The last memory I have of her is just that; the very last time I saw my daughter Shinra was carting her away _in handcuffs_!"

Her voice dropped now. "And Shinra is…is who made Sephiroth into who he is." Which, Reeve reflected, was more literally true than she could ever realize. "And you have the _gall_ to say you're sorry?"

She continued, her voice beginning to tremble as she spoke. "All I wanted from the moment I brought a frightened, traumatized little girl home with me was to give her a chance. A chance to live her life, a chance to be happy, a chance to be free. I wanted her to have the opportunity to make a place for herself in the world, to pursue her dreams, to fall in love, get married and have a family of her own. And now none of that is going to happen!" She paused as tears began dripping down her face. "And you're sorry! No, you don't get to be sorry."

Reeve sat silently as she spoke. He realized he was just the scapegoat at this point, the one Shinra man within easy reach, but still he felt a tremor of guilt. The company had been going down a path he did not approve of for years now, and he had just sat back and hidden behind his relatively powerless position, knowing that there was little he could do about it. Maybe he should have tried anyway.

"That may be. But I still am. Sorry that I couldn't…didn't do more," He said.

Elmyra got up and went to the kitchen sink. "Just go."

Reeve got up as well. "Mrs. Gainsbo…"

"Just leave!" she suddenly snarled. "GET OUT!" She threw her mug into the far wall, its pieces tumbling to the floor. "GET! OUT!" She reached to grab one of the other mugs he'd brought, but as she brought it up, she began looking at it, with its distinctive flower pattern. She ran her finger around the rim, stumbling over to an armchair and sinking down into it. "Aerith. Oh, Aerith," she sobbed out.

This was her daughter's mug, the one she'd drink tea or hot chocolate from, or occasionally in summer a cool lemonade after working in her flower garden. Elmyra clutched the mug to her chest as she finally broke down completely, barely noticing Reeve slipping out the door. It felt like hours, days, she sat there, but it couldn't have been more than a minute or two before she heard a small voice.

"Mrs. Gainsborough?" Elmyra blinked and looked around, peering through her tears at the dark-haired little girl looking up at her with a worried expression.

"Oh, Marlene," she said. "I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

Marlene came closer, putting a hand on her arm. "Are you ok?"

No…nothing was ok anymore.

Elmyra gave her a shaky smile. "I…I just…" she put the mug on the table. "Why don't you sit with me for a while?" Marlene looked confused, but climbed up into Elmyra's lap, as she wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her the same way she used to hold her daughter when she was little.

She wasn't sure how long they sat there, just at some point she realized Marlene had fallen back to sleep, so she carefully got up and carried her back to the bedroom she was staying in. She laid the girl down and tucked her in, watching wistfully as she smiled in her sleep, the untroubled dreams of the innocent.

Elmyra kissed Marlene's head then turned to go to her own room. She paused at the door, staring down at the sleeping child as though she could somehow will straight black hair to become wavy dark chestnut, for when her eyes opened to be bright green instead of brown. She shook her head and began trudging back toward her room.

She needed sleep. Tomorrow would come regardless. The first day of the rest of her life.

A life without Aerith.

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And there you have it. Let me know what you think.


End file.
